I just finished reading Patricia Wells' wonderful book, "We'll Always Have Paris . . . and Provence". This famous cooking teacher has written a fun and interesting book about her life which includes some of her favorite recipes, too. She raves about this cake in her book saying she could eat the whole thing! She and I are alike when it comes to dessert. She says she can usually pass on dessert and I can, too. I do like a dessert that is not too sweet and involves almond flour. This cake contains no egg yolks, no white flour and no butter. It's light, like an angel food cake, but has that wonderful earthy taste of almonds.And this cake is so easy to make - everything gets whipped up in one bowl and put right in the pan to bake. Easy!

Make sure you measure the egg whites in a measuring cup, do not go by just the number of egg whites.

Ingredients:

1 teaspoon vegetable oil for preparing the pan (I just used Pam)

1 cup egg whites (6 to 8 large)

1 cup sugar

a scant 2 cups almond powder or flour*

grated zest of 2 lemons

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 cups fresh raspberries (or other small berries)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Brush a 9 1/2 inch springform pan with the oil or spray with Pam. Set aside.

Place the egg whites in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a whisk. Beat at low speed until frothy. Gradually increase the speed to high, slowly adding the sugar, and whisking until the egg whites are stiff but not dry. At low speed, carefully add the almond flour, lemon zest, cornstarch and salt and mix until blended.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the berries on top. Place the pan in the center of the oven and bake until the cake is firm and golden and begins to pull away from the side of the pan, 35 to 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and transfer to a rack to cool. After 10 minutes, run a knife along the side of the pan. Release and remove the side of the pan, leaving the cake on the base. Serve warm or at room temperature.

I thought this cake was even better the next day!*Not as hard to find as you may think - sometimes almond flour is located in the health foods section at the grocery store. I buy Bob's Red Mill Almond Flour in my local grocery.

I made this cake yesterday and used all-purpose flour and almond extract because I didn't have almond flour. It turned out terribly. It was like a rock. My children actually used it as a Frisbee. What a waste of fresh raspberries. I notice now that none of the posters actually made the cake, they just commented on how it looks.

I want to make this cake for my mom's birthday next week; it looks divine and not too gooey or sweet, which will make it perfect for her taste. However, I need some clarification about the recipe directions. In the second paragraph under Instructions, we are told to add the "ground almonds," but ground almonds are not on the Ingredients list. Do the instructions mean to say add the almond flour? Thanks!

Leesa: Haha! I've made the cake so many times myself and never have noticed that. I will change it. Thank you. Yes, it is the almond flour. Sometimes if I don't have almond flour, I just grind whole raw almonds myself. I must have had that on the brain.

This is the perfect dessert for when you want to serve cake but nothing heavy. This recipe is low in sugar and high on taste! A super find for GF bakers. I found I had to bake close to 50 min in order to insure the middle didn't jiggle.

Can you tell me how many grams a cup of sugar is as mentioned in this recipe, as we don't use Cups as a measure in Europe.When I get to know, I will certainly make this delicious looking pie!Thanks in advance for you answer and your great recipes!

This was so yummy! Some of us in the family are gluten and sugar free so I subbed honey for the sugar and this was a big hit, moist and flavorful and so pretty on my Christmas table. I love your blog.......I too am 100% Italian and love to cook - have looked at a lot of your pasta and pizzas and find our recipes are the same. My son bought my husband and I a trip to Italy for Christmas and I am sooooooo excited - I've never been there! Thanks again for the lovely recipes and may your New Year be truly blessed!

I just made this for a New Year's Eve party and it was a huge hit! A lovely, flavorful and light cake. The almond flour gives it a slightly coarse, yet still light texture quite different than traditional flour. Perfection. One side note: Don't try using boxed liquid egg whites to save wasting the yolks...it won't work, they do not whip up. Even after 15 minutes on high combined with the sugar they were still just soupy. Yuck. LOL. Had to redo first steps with freshly separated egg whites...Much better! :)

Melanie: Yes, almond meal and almond flour are slightly different but it varies from brand to brand. Both products should only contain one ingredient: ground up almonds and nothing else. If your almond meal is just almonds, you can use it. The difference generally is that almond meal is usually a bit coarser grind than almond flour, which will just give your cake a different texture. Also, almond meal sometimes is made by grinding almonds with their skins on, as opposed to almond flour, which generally uses skinless almonds. Again - varies by brands. But you should be okay using your almond meal - you probably will have a cake with a larger crumb. Hope this helps!